Cricket World® Player Of The Week - Marcus North

Australian Marcus North has been named as the Cricket World® Player Of The Week after his match-winning spell of bowling at Lord's against Pakistan.

North, an occasional off-spin bowler, doubled his tally of Test wickets by taking six for 55 as Australia bowled Pakistan out for 289 in their second innings to claim a 150-win run in the first match of a two-game series.

He was called on to bowl and immediately broke a promising partnership between Salman Butt and Azhar Ali when Butt was sharply stumped by Tim Paine for 92.

He went on to dismiss Umar Amin (33), Umar Akmal (22), Shahid Afridi (2), Mohammad Amir (19) and Danish Kaneria (2) to easily surpass his previous Test best effort of four for 98 and also beat his previous best in all first-class cricket of six for 69.

His wickets made up for a match in which he struggled with the bat, registering a three-ball duck in the first innings and making just 20 in the second innings.

The game saw variable conditions, in which Simon Katich and Salman Butt both impressed by posting two half-centuries and there was also a maiden Test five-wicket haul for Shane Watson - all contenders for the weekly award.

Also in the running was England's Claire Taylor, whose two half-centuries helped her side clinch the NatWest ODI series against New Zealand, Junaid Siddique and William Porterfield, who scored centuries in the Bangladesh-Ireland series and Kumar Sangakkara for his century on the opening day of the Sri Lanka-India Test series.